Corruption
In this application of taint, good and evil are more than just abstract moral concepts... or at least evil is, anyway. Those who do especially wicked deeds have a stain upon their souls. This darkness can eat away at the spirit, until there’s nothing left inside but emptiness and corruption. Acquiring Corruption Characters acquire corruption by doing evil deeds. The exact definition of “evil” is left up to the Gamemaster, but generally means any deliberately harmful action undertaken for reasons other than the defense of one’s self or others. In some cases, you may want to limit the list of potential “sins.” For example, perhaps murder and torture are corrupting, while simple theft is not. The more gruesome the act, the higher the DC for the Will check to avoid Taint. Effects of Corruption A corrupt character uses his or her Taint Dice Pool to resolve any checks made with an FX which rely on a Holy or Good Descriptor. If these are particularly common or important in your game, Taint should be considered Challenge Rank 3. If, on the other hand, there are a wide variety of Descriptors, many of which do not rely on Good or Holy, you may reduce the Challenge Rank to 2 or even 1 (just as if you were applying the Limited Flaw to an FX: the less of an impact that Taint has on characters, the lower its Challenge Rank). However, a corrupt character may gain the ability to use unholy or evil FX. Corruption dice impose Mental Drawbacks associated with sociopathic or even psychopathic behavior. The more corruption the character accumulates, the worse (or more numerous) the drawbacks become, and the more likely the character is to acquire further corruption, continuing the cycle. For games where evil is an even more palpable force, Corruption may cause some Physical Drawbacks, particularly ones like Mark of Evil. Eliminating Corruption Corruption is removed not only by refraining from doing evil deeds, but also by actively doing good deeds in an effort of redemption. Unless the deeds are extremely noble, Corruption should be treated as ordinary Trait, which 1 week of purification rituals and prayer. However, part of the goal of Taint, particularly corruption, is to encourage characters to overcome the Taint in heroic ways. For a character who has become corrupted to act in a truly selfless, noble way, particularly if it shows that the character has learned something from the experience and gained some wisdom, then the GM should feel free to reward such heroism by removing one or more Taint Dice. Depending on the tone and themes of your game, it may take1 week of "treatment" from Academics to purge Corruption, as a character is exorcised by a priestess who goes over the sacred incantations and rituals. A character may also be entitled to a Will check to recover from Corruption after 1 month of self-cleansing and meditation. Of course, any corruption-induced drawbacks will make it more difficult to stay on the straight and narrow; the player may need to spend hero points to allow the character to overcome the drawback long enough to do the right thing. Category:Rulebook Category:Action Category:Taint